Questions raised by Pope’s case

Kim Smith

Tuesday, April 4, 2000 | 11:28 a.m.

Is the way Nevada treats its teenage murder suspects fair? As attorneys for one boy fight for his freedom, that question weighs heavily on the minds of others.

In Nevada, children can stand trial as adults under two circumstances.

Children of any age who are charged with attempted murder or murder are automatically certified as adults. Or a Juvenile Court judge may certify children over 14 years old as adults if they are charged with sexual assault or a crime in which a deadly weapon was used. The only time the judge can decide not to certify such children is if there is evidence of substance abuse or emotional or behavioral problems.

The Conan Pope case has brought the adult certification issue to the forefront for a number of reasons. Not only does the boy have no prior record, but, his defense attorneys argue, there is evidence the death of his father was justifiable homicide.

His case raises other questions as well: Should any 15-year-old be locked up with adult criminals before he has been tried and convicted?

Although Clark County does not keep statistics on the number of children certified as adults, 24 children under age 18 were housed in the Clark County Detention Center in February.

Even if a child is found guilty, should the nature of the charges determine whether the child is directed toward the juvenile system, which is geared to rehabilitation, or the adult system, which focuses on punishment?

The way the laws are written now, that is what happens, local legal pundits agree.

District Judge Robert Gaston has been the Juvenile Court judge for Clark County for about one year. The certification of children falls directly on his shoulders.

"I need more discretion. There are children who must be certified by law that I think we can help," Gaston said. "I'm sending people to adult prison at 14. What do you think is going to happen to him?

"This law is saying that we've totally given up on him. Not only as a juvenile, but as an adult. We're guaranteeing that he is going to learn the criminal lifestyle and the criminal mind-set."

As far as Chief Deputy District Attorney Bob Teuton is concerned, not enough children are being certified as adults. As a result, those children who can be rehabilitated are suffering.

"We need to reduce the number of youths we deal with, and one of the ways we can do that is to take a certain amount of these kids out of the juvenile system and put them in the adult system so we have more money to do meaningful things with those we have left," Teuton said.

Teuton said he liked the law that was in effect before 1995. Then any child 16 or older who committed a felony could be certified as an adult.

"To be frank, if there's any indication at all of an emotional or behavior problem, they're not being certified," Teuton said. "I've had kids who have made allegations they've been using dope for five years and there's been no other evidence besides that self-serving statement, and that's been sufficient not to certify them."

Teuton said he would like to scrap the entire law and start over because the current law simply isn't fair.

For example, a 17-year-old drug user and drinker who will likely break the law again will be treated better than a 17-year-old straight A student who isn't likely to ever commit another crime, Teuton said. The first teenager will end up going through the juvenile system and the second one will likely be tried as an adult.

Whatever changes are made to the law, one of the areas that needs to be addressed is the housing of juveniles both before and after they are sentenced.

While many facilities are built to keep child defendants out of the "sight and sound" of adult prisoners, the Clark County jail is not. Pope, for example, was moved to a cell by himself after it was revealed he and a male prostitute engaged in a sex act shortly after his arrival.

Pope's defense attorneys claim the boy was victimized by the man. Prosecutors say he solicited the act.

Regardless of who instigated it, Gaston was clearly upset about the incident, and although he knows jail officials are doing the best they can, he wonders about the future.

"They're accommodating Conan Pope because he's getting all of the press. I'm wondering what's going to happen to the next guy," Gaston said, not just in the current jail but also in the new one being planned for the yet-to-be-built Regional Justice Center. "I bet you $50 juvenile accommodations aren't in the design, and they should be."

Jail officials have said the expansion will give them some "latitude" in making housing decisions.

Defense attorney Tony Sgro said it's not just the fights and the sexual abuse he's worried about.

"Most of these kids come from single-mother homes and they've never had a strong male influence in their lives," Sgro said. "Then they get placed in a jail, and they're unsophisticated, and these older guys try to pass themselves off as an older brother or a father figure."

The boys, needing protection or needing a confidant, will open themselves up to those prisoners and then end up being the victims of a snitch, Sgro said.

Sgro said he agrees with Gaston in that the judges need more discretion when making the decision on whether to certify a child as an adult. He has several teenage clients who have been charged with murder but have no criminal records and were not wielding a weapon.

Under Nevada law, anyone present during a crime in which a death results can be charged with murder.

"The intent of the certification statute was to protect society against those teens who make a conscious decision to commit a crime using a weapon," Sgro said. "What it doesn't address is those kids who were just along for the ride."

Sgro said that hearings should be held every time prosecutors want to try a child as an adult so evidence can be heard on the child's past criminal history and the extent to which the child was allegedly involved in the crime.

It is incredibly tough to tell a 14- or 15-year-old they are going away for 40 years -- 20 years for pulling a robbery and 20 years because their buddy used a gun and killed someone, Sgro said.

"They haven't been on the planet half that long. They have no idea. Forty years. They've lived and died twice," Sgro said. "To them, three or four years is a lifetime. Their childhoods are a blur. They remember being 12, 13, 14, and if they're arrested at age 16, they figure five years is a fair sentence."

Teuton said he would like to see juvenile offenders go through the adult system and receive adult punishments. However, those adult punishments would only be imposed if the juvenile failed to live up to certain standards set by the judge.

"There are absurd consequences under the current law," Teuton said. "I think there should be adult penalties, but we should give them the chance to work their punishments off first. It would be a lot fairer than the current system."

The bottom line, Gaston said, is that despite incidents like those at Columbine High School, there are plenty of children out there who can be fixed.

"Some of them are incorrigible. There are a few for which there is no hope, but I think most can be helped," Gaston said.